Thursday, August 31, 2017

Two years ago, I posted that I would be closing this blog on August 30, 2017 - yesterday. This was because I wanted to simply walk away from the real world and its problems. However, something happened in the meantime - the 2016 election. In short, I'm proof it really is possible to hate both of the main candidates equally. People speak of how dismayed the were the day after the election when they learned Trump had won. That's the way I felt when Trump and Clinton became the two principle candidates during the primaries. I'm still disgusted that we chose those two candidates. (By the way, only 11% of eligible voters picked them in the primaries.) And, as much as I despise Donald Trump, you would have a hard time convincing me we would be better off with a President Hillary Clinton.

As you can imagine, this made me pretty angry and I realized I could not walk away from the fight over climate change. I have been involved for too long and have a history of being involved in fights - both literal and figurative ones. I spent 35 years in Naval Intelligence and was involved with a number of wars. I've also been involved with climate science for about the same length of time (I was a reservist, hence two careers). I'm trained and experienced in fighting and it's ingrained in my personality, as is research.

"Fine," you say, "What do you plan on doing about it?"

I'm not quite prepared to answer that question. I have made plans and am working on a project. I'm very dedicated to this project and it's taking most of my time this summer. I should know the initial results before Christmas and will then reveal what I'm up to. Until then, I will continue to make posts here.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) is a
far-right, anti-science organization that acts as a front-group for the fossil
fuel industry, receiving millions of dollars per year from sources such as the
dark money Donors Trust and the coal company Peabody Energy. ExxonMobil gave
them over $500,000 between 1998 and 2007. Numerous other fossil fuel companies
have donated to them. The list of people associated with CFACT reads as a who’s
who of anti-science climate change deniers. None of this is controversial or a
secret. In fact, CFACT seems to take pride in these facts.

CFACT is one of the most active organizations in the climate
change denier front – working to undermine climate science with false claims
and logic failures. One of their recent creations is the anti-science movie Climate Hustle. This, they claim, has
been a huge success and, according to them, is changing the entire debate. In
one recent posting, David Rothbard, the president
and co-founder of CFACT, boasted “When CFACT's Climate Hustle
hit theaters it came in at number one per screen and it was shown in over 400
theaters nationwide!” Their website for the movie states, “CLIMATE HUSTLE was
the #1 movie in America
(per screen average) during its one-night national theater event and had
enthusiastic audiences in over 400 theaters with sell-outs or near sell outs in
multiple cities!” This is all very impressive, impressive enough that I did
some fact checking and I discovered something.

It’s all a lie.It did not open in any theaters at all and
did not have a single penny of box office revenue.

Yes, you read that correctly. The movie did NOT open in 400
theaters. In fact, it didn’t open in even ONE theater. And, it had ZERO box
office receipts.

Take a look at Movie Insider, which lists all movie
openings. The listing for May 2016 showed there were NO movies at all opening
on May 2, 2016. A check for the rest of May 2016 did not show any listing for Climate Hustle. I checked April 2016 to
ensure it was not listed there (May 2nd was the last weekend of April) and
there was no listing there, either. Even the opening date should have been an
alarm bell and an indicator of the coming deceit. May 2, 2016 was a Monday and
there are, typically, no movies opening on a Monday. In other words, Climate Hustle could have generated $1
in box office receipts and it would have been the #1 opening movie simply
because there would have been no other movie opening on the same day. You have to assume that was their strategy all along.

But, it didn’t get even the $1! Take a look Box Office Mojo,
which lists all of the domestic movie grosses. The 2016 listing has Rogue One: A Star Wars Story as the #1 movie of the year in 4,157 theaters with $532,177,324 in revenue for
the year. The last movie listed, at #736, is Satanic, which opened at 3 theaters and made $252. What you don’t
find anywhere between #1 and #736 is Climate
Hustle. Not anywhere.

The record shows the movie did not open in any theaters and
did not have any box office revenue. CFACT is lying!

What if someone comes forward and states they know the data
is wrong because they went to see it on that night. First, I would want to see
some proof because I’ve dealt with these people enough to know just how much
they’re willing to lie. Did CFACT rent a bunch of theaters and have a private
showing? It’s possible. But, then why are they hiding the attendance and
revenue figures? Could it be because the movie was a bomb and they don’t want
anyone to know?

Someone may argue that they are not being deceitful
if it was all private screenings. The answer is, yes, they are. They
specifically stated that it "hit theaters" and was the number one movie
per screen. Both of those statements are lies.

CFACT has continued its train of fraud by taking Climate Hustleto Australia in July 2017. Again, they
boasted of huge turnouts. Let’s check the facts.

The Australia
box office receipts for the week of June 29 – July 2 listed Climate Hustle at: NOTHING! The movie
did not appear in the box office receipts. It appears we’re seeing a pattern develop
here. How about following weeks? July 6 – 9? Nope, no Climate Hustle. How about the following week, July 13 – 16? Nope.
July 20 – 23? Fraid not. In fact, there is no listing for Climate Hustle box office receipts at all in Australia.

It appears they may have had at least one show. This website
purportedly shows a crowd attending a showing. They claimed there were 300
people for the showing. Maybe, but with their record of lies and deceit, it's
anyone’s guess what this picture is actually showing. As far as I know, this is
a group of employees showing up to hear about the corporate medical plan and
has nothing to do with Climate Hustle. Either way, it still did NOT open in theaters in Australia and had NO box office receipts.

They are being deceitful about this movie and you have to
ask why. My guess is that it bombed beyond their biggest fears. And, by keeping
the data secret, they can attack other movies they get so angry about – namely Merchants of Doubt and An Inconvenient Sequel. Let’s check in
on the data for those movies. Not surprisingly, it’s easy to find the data on
both of them.

Merchants of Doubt,
which exposed the corruption of the anti-science organizations, was released in
2015 and came in at #298 with $308,156 in box office receipts from 30
screens. As of today (August 16), An
Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power is coming in at #105 with $2,401,130 in
receipts at 556 theaters.

So, unlike CFACT’s fake-science movie, these two movies
actually did appear in theaters and had box office receipts. What a difference!

Again, you have to wonder why CFACT is being so deceptive
about this. Well, just take a look at the organization and the people involved.
Really, you only have to look at one of them – Marc Morano.

Marc Morano is a guy with a B.A. in political science from George Mason
University who thinks
this somehow qualifies him as a ‘climate science expert’ and thinks he’s
smarter than all of the climate scientists in the world combined. He is paid $150,000 per year to act as the front man for CFACT as the executive director
and chief correspondent for CFACT’s Climate Depot blog. On the subject of
deceiving people on the climate science, Morano stated,

“The media is so easy to fall for misdirections on this
issue, and the Trump nominees have mastered that this week,” he said. “You sort
of just laugh at how gullible the media is.”

Morano has a long, dirty history of association with the
fossil fuel industry and the incredibly corrupt James Inhofe, the senator from Oklahoma who has received
more fossil fuel money than any other senator. But, that isn’t even the best
highlight of Morano’s career. That would be the way he provides the email addresses of climate scientists and advocates his readers to commit hate crimes
against those scientists and their families. In the movie Merchants of Doubt, he acknowledges this, laughs about it, and says
its one of his proudest accomplishments.

Marc Morano is not qualified to speak about climate science, is a consummate liar, and advocates hate crimes. Yet, this is the guy CFACT pays to represent them. Do you still
need to ask why they are lying about the movie? There is certainly a hustle
going on here, and it is on the part of CFACT. After all, why bother producing any science when lies and deceit will work?

I just wonder - did they really think they would get away with this? Yes, it's been 15 months, but the Internet has a LONG memory.

Sunday, August 6, 2017

I recently made a posting about how the denier hatchet-man
Russell Cook had written a letter to the editor to beat up a woman who
submitted a letter of her own. You can read about it here. Cook apparently took exception to my post about him and made
one of his own, purporting to show 25 errors I made. Certainly, I’m always concerned
about making errors and put a lot of effort into my writing to ensure it
factually accurate, so I took a look at what he had to say. It was so humorous
I had to go through and examine it point by point. I made a screen shot before
he realizes how stupid it is. My analysis is below and I hope you have as much
reading about it as I had writing it. I start out each section with my comment
that Cook states is in error, followed by his comment (reprinted here
verbatim). I then respond and determine if I made an error or not.

Enjoy!

Me: Tom Harris
will lie

Cook:1. Lie about what? Harris routinely refers to
climate assessments from skeptic climate scientists, and what climatology
expertise does Keating have to prove such skeptics lie about their science-based
assertions

Response: My
expertise is that I’m a professor of physics. Unlike Tom, who allows people to
call him ‘Dr. Harris,’ or ‘Professor Harris,’ or to state that he’s a
scientist, I really am one. I do my research in planetary geophysics and have
been actively involved in research in climate science for over 25 years and a
student of the subject for a good ten years before that.

That is eight separate articles by Harris where I’ve exposed
his intentional deceptions (i.e., lies) and documented his false science
claims. And, that was for only the last three months. Harris has a very long
trail of lies, deceptions, false arguments and false science claims. I’m not
sure if Harris has ever gotten the science correct.

Harris continually states he has never been affiliated with
the fossil fuel industry. Take a look at his bio from APCO which states,
“Specifically, he has worked with oil and gas, coal…” Harris is lying every
time he denies his affiliations with the fossil fuel industry.:

And to be clear, if I went around stating Harris was lying
and I couldn’t back that statement up, I could be liable under libel and
slander laws. You can be sure I was very certain of the accuracy of my
statements before I ever made them.

Error/Not Error: This one is such a non-error that I’m can’t
believe Cook even claimed it was. It has to be embarrassing for both Cook and
Harris to have his lies documented and pointed out like this. He should have
let this sleeping dog lie.

Me: Russell Cook
will show up to be his pit bull

Cook: 2.Hardly. Tom Harris writes op-eds and
letters-to-the-editor that I am totally unaware of, but he has alerted me via
email to a few where he knows I would have some fun challenging his critics to
prove he or others are paid by 'Big Coal & Oil' to lie.

Response: Incredible,
Cook just stated he doesn’t come running to defend Harris by claiming he runs
to defend Harris. Does he even read these things before he posts them? The truth is, as soon as the comments demand Harris back up his claims with
facts and science, he goes into hiding and Cook shows up to try and do the
heavy lifting. It’s typically pretty embarrassing for both of them.

Error/Not Error: Laughably
far from being an error. Thanks, Russell. I needed that.

Me: Tom Harris is
a paid shill of the fossil fuel industry

Cook: 3.Two words: prove it. Keating has yet to
produce an iota of evidence proving 'money paid' came under any instructions
from anybody on what, when, where, and how to knowingly lie.

Response: Cook’s
logic is that, since I was not sitting in a meeting where some fossil fuel
executive said to Harris, “We’ll pay you a bunch of money to lie about climate
change,” that Harris is, therefore, not a paid shill. Go back to the first
statement about Harris’ lies. Take special note of his APCO bio showing he was a PR man for the fossil fuel industry. Clearly, Harris is lying on a regular basis.
Further, all of his lies are to undermine climate science and promote fossil
fuels, especially coal. Further, his comments about fossil fuels are almost
always lies and work to promote that industry. Someone is paying ICSC to do all
of this. Harris has long-standing ties to the fossil fuel and tobacco
industries, including Heartland Institute, which is paid by the fossil fuel
industry to undermine climate science. There is only one conclusion to reach
here.

Error/Not Error:
Majestically not an error. Harris paid shill status has been documented for
decades.

Me: it's his job
to place anti-science pieces

Cook: 4.Harris often refers to science-based
assessments from skeptic climate scientists who in turn cite peer-reviewed
material published in science journals to make their case. Exactly what is
anti-science about that?

Response: What is
anti-science about Harris’ pieces is the fact that there is no credible, supportable
science in his claims; the fact (yes, fact) that he lies; the fact that he
misleads; the fact that he uses false arguments; the fact that all of this
deception is to make the climate science appear to be non-credible and we shouldn’t
do anything about it; and the fact that he’s paid to undermine the scientists.
That is quite a track record of anti-science activity.

And, don't forget how his nearly sole source of information is the Climate Reconsidered Reconsidered report from the NIPCC. The NIPCC is itself paid by the Heartland Institute, making it a paid shill organization. The smell is getting bad here.

Error/Not Error: Not
even close to becoming an error.

Me: campaign to
undermine climate science.

Cook: 5.What campaign? What evidence exists naming
the participants, their strategy meetings, and what happens if speakers such as
Harris have material which does not meet the approval of fossil fuel
executives?

Yikes! Even without the payoff, Harris has proven to be
dishonest and fraudulent. And, of course, refer to the APCO bio above.

Error/Not Error:
Most definitely not an error.

Me: TomHarrisPaidShill

Cook: 7.And the page Keating links to contains zero
evidence proving Harris is in any kind of conspiracy where he is paid to lie.

Response: What????
This is an example of Russell’s favorite line of logic: “It’s not true until I
say it’s true. Therefore, if I say it isn’t true, it isn’t.” For further
amplification, I refer you to my responses above. All of this is documented in
the Tom Harris Clearing House, plus much more. And, the APCO bio is included
there, among many other gems about Harris.

Error/Not Error:
Not an error, but it is a great example of Cook’s faulty logic stem, which we
will be seeing more of.

Me: Duluth New Tribune, a news
media that is an unfortunately friendly place for the anti-science crowd

Cook: Aside: I'd
like to see Keating defend this statement in front of the entire staff of the
Duluth News Tribune.

Response: Gladly.
And, I’m not the only one who’s noticed. Take a look at this letter to the
editor complaining about this very issue. As long as they publish anti-science articles from climate
change deniers who are attempting to undermine the science, it will be a
friendly place for the anti-science crowd.

Error/Not Error: He
didn’t actually call this an error, which is good, because it isn’t.

Me: You can read
the response Terry and I made here.

Cook: 8.Keating's link DOESN'T go to the paper of
record, the Duluth News Tribune's version of his letter-to-the-editor, which is
at this link:http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/opinion/readers-views/4294271-readers-view-climate-skeptics-hard-believe

Why? Because Keating's and his co-author's original version,
which he DOES link to. contained unsubstantiated personal attacks against Tom
Harris, which the DNT does not permit. Compare what appears at the DNT against
what Keating originally proposed. After his LTE did appear online, Keating
altered the introductoryparagraph about
his LTE to what is seen herehttp://dialoguesonglobalwarming.blogspot.com/2017/06/tom-harris-deceives-about-science.html
, to mention its publication, albeit without a word of why he deleted the post
for 10 days.

Response: He
isn’t even saying this is an error. He’s merely complaining that he doesn’t
like the way the other kids play. I provided a link to my posting on my blog
and there was nothing deceptive about it. After all, it says in big letters at
the top: Dialogues on Global Warming. Here’s the story: I and Terry wrote a
response together and submitted it to the Duluth News Tribune. We received the
following response from the editor,

Hello, Mr. Keating. Just an FYI. To help assure the letters
to the editor that we publish remain civil, we don't allow letters to be about
previous letter writers but rather the content of their letters. That helps
head off personal attacks. So your letter in response to Tom Harris's letter
was edited as you see it below. Just didn't want you to be surprised.

I also posted the original response on my blog. What I
didn’t know is that Russell Cook contacted the paper and tried to prevent its
publication (see the next Cook statement below.). The paper asked me to take it
down because they required it to have not been submitted for publication
before. I did not realize that posting it on my blog counted as previously
published, so I removed it as they asked. Once it was published, I was allowed
to post it again. In order to ensure I wasn’t violating anything, I included
the original version instead of the paper’s version. Besides, I wanted to
highlight how Harris was deceptive again.

Error/Not Error: Again,
he didn’t even say it was an error, so it certainly falls under the Not Error
category. This is another example of Cook’s deceptions. All he did was complain
about me and then made the bold statement that I had made 25 errors.

Me: called in
Russell Cook to do one of his attack pieces.

Cook: 9.Harris did no such thing. The actual sequence
of events happened as follows: Since I periodically look at Keating's blog as a
matter of curiosity, I found his then-proposed 6/28/17 letter-to-the-editor
(archived in original form here http://archive.is/Iid5o ), and I alerted a DNT
editor to it as yet another potential opportunity to challenge people like
Keating to prove their assertions. The editor replied to say Keating's
publication of it at his blog violated the newspaper's requirement about having
first-publication exclusivity to such pieces, and he asked Keating to delete
his blog post, which Keating did. Before Keating's LTE reply to Harris was
published, I saw another LTE critical of Harris at the DNT of a rather similar
nature, which prompted me to write the letter Keating is referring to here. I
did this entirely on my own with absolutely zero prompting from Tom Harris.

Response: I’ll
stand by this statement without hesitation. It is irrelevant if Harris called
him about this specific issue when Cook has already stated Harris has him
responding to comments and articles. If that is the working relationship they
have established and he acts on his own (or, possibly, not), he is still being
called in by Harris.

Error/Not Error: Not
an error.

Me: Russell Cook
is a hatchet-man for the Heartland Institute

Cook: 10.No, I'm not. They do know of my history of
challenging letter writers and article commenters to show readers where the
proof exists indicting skeptics of corporate corruption, and they sometimes
suggest places where I can pose those challenges, but I receive no instructions
on what to write.

Response: Did he
really just say that? Heartland tells me what to do, knowing that I write
stupid comments to harass people, but I’m not their hatchet man.

Error/Not Error:
Not an error. I’m glad I took a screen shot of this one before Cook realizes
what he said and takes it down.

Me: gets paid
thousands of dollars

Cook: 11.I'm not paid a dime by anybody to do what I
do. I have fully disclosed my strings-free grants from Heartland from the start
of my blog:http://gelbspanfiles.com/?cat=1

Response: Compare
this one to the claim above (number 10). Heartland knows what he does, tells
him where to go to make comments, and pays him. Somehow, in Cook’s weird
universe, that is not getting paid.

Error/Not Error:
Not an error. I’m trying to think of some witty comment to go along with this,
but I can’t think of anything funnier than what Cook just said.

Cook: 12.My GelbspanFiles blog - which Keating cannot
bring himself to link to here - dissects Gelbspan's role in the accusation that
skeptic climate scientists are paid industry money to lie. Since Gelbspan is
widely described as the 'discoverer' of this alleged corruption, astute readers
will see this as a focus of mine, and certainly not any kind of unwarranted
obsession.

Response: Let’s see: His blog is called the
“GelbspanFiles.” It’s since been changed, but his “Who We Are” page on the
Heartland Institute previously stated "He specializes in research of the
origins of accusations leveled at skeptics and the associations of people
surrounding it, most notably anti-skeptic book author Ross Gelbspan." And,
he can’t stop talking about him. Sure looks like obsession from where I’m
sitting. As for the pay, see claim number 11 above.

Error/Not Error:
Not an error.

Me: won the
Pulitzer Prize

Cook: 13.If this is so, why is it that the Pulitzer
organization itself, the final arbiter of who receives their prizes, does not
acknowledge Gelbspan as a Pulitzer winner?http://www.pulitzer.org/search/Gelbspan

Response: Cook is
technically correct on this one. Ross Gelbspan conceived, directed and edited a
series of articles in the Boston Globe that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1984. The
prize actually named Kenneth Cooper, Joan Fitz Gerald, Jonathan Kaufman, Norman
Lockman, Gary McMillan, Kirk Scharfenberg and David Wessel of The Boston Globe.
So, Gelbspan’s name was not on the prize.

What is amusing about this is that Cook was the first one to
tell me how Gelpspan was a Pulitzer winner. Take a look at his comment:

Meanwhile, what's up with the "the sold[sic] job of
attacking one particular blogger" line? What blogger? Show us all exactly
where it says that. Surely you don't actually believe the "Pulitzer
Prize-winning investigative journalist" Ross Gelbspan is a mere blogger,
do you?? Really???

After reading his comment, I did some research and misinterpreted
the statement concerning the prize. Apparently, so did Cook.

Error/Not Error: This
is an error. I suppose I could try a Russellism and blame him for stating
Gelbspan won the prize in the first place. But, I won’t. It was my
responsibility to get my facts straight and I obviously take that responsibility
much more seriously than Cook, so I’m the one to blame.

Me: My first
run-in with Cook was several years ago when he made a poorly-disguised threat
on this blog to sue me

Cook: 14.As I described with screencaptures in my
prior analysis of Keatinghttp://gelbspanfiles.com/?p=4936, his very first reply to me struck me a so
bizarre that my immediate response was to re-phrase my challenge in an entirely
different manner to overcome any kind of perception problem he had about what
the challenge was.

Response: Picture
this scenario: You are talking to someone who wants you to stop saying the
things you’ve been saying and that person says to you, “If you had to answer a
court subpoena as a defense witness supporting people accused of committing
libel/slander against skeptic climate scientists, is that material from
ExxonSecrets all you'd have to bring with you?” (Exact quote.) How would you
interpret that? If you didn’t interpret it as a threat or an effort to
intimidate, then you are different from most people.

Error/Not Error:
Not an error. Cook can try to recant as many times as he wants, but the fact is
that he was trying to intimidate me with a threat of a lawsuit. Suck it up,
Russell, put your big boy pants on and take responsibility for your actions.

Response: The
blog post and the conversation were about Heartland and the NIPCC (Heartland’s
fake science group). There was no other topic. If Cook decided to start
discussing something else in the middle of the conversation he gave no
indication of that. Therefore, it was, and is, logical to assume he was
referring to my criticisms of Heartland.

Error/Not Error:
Not error and not even very ingenious of Cook.

Me: He quickly
backed down

Cook: 16.Again, my second-ever comment at Keating's
blog was to rephrase the identical challenge to produce evidence proving
skeptic climate scientists were paid to lie, and I politely but relentlessly
posed this challenge, with apparently enough damaging effect that he chose to
ban me from commenting there:
http://gelbspanfiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Keating-delblacklist.jpg

One reason why he claimed he did this was my alleged
personal attacks, but I'm confident readers will find no such thing within the
entire history of my comments at his blog:
https://www.google.com/search?q=site:dialoguesonglobalwarming.blogspot.com+%22russell+cook%22

Response: I
delete comments that are overly offensive. Cook was making repeated uncivil
comments and was trolling my blog. After several warnings, I banned him. No,
you won’t see his offensive comments on the blog. But then again, you’ll see
very few uncivil comments from other trolls. I even banned one person because
of a racially offensive handle.

What Cook isn’t telling you here is when he first tried to
intimidate me I told him the first thing I was going to do was “subpoena the
necessary financials of the individuals and organizations involved.” He
immediately backed down and has had a bug up his butt about it ever since. Just
like any playground bully, stand up to them and they back down, but they don’t
like it.

Error/Not Error: Not
an error.

Cook: Aside:Keating has never yet identified who these
lawyers are or what type of law they practice.

Response: Really?
That’s your argument? I didn’t identify these lawyers, so, therefore, it isn’t
real.Sorry, I'm not providing that kind of information and it really isn't any business of yours.

Error/Not Error: Not
an error (or even a credible complaint). But, of course, he didn’t actually say
it was an error. He was simply jumping at another opportunity to embarrass
himself. I would’ve thought he already had enough of those, but I guess not.

Me: simply
proclaim nothing is evidence until he says it is.

Cook: 17.Hardly. I demonstrate at considerably length
at GelbspanFiles how particular narratives do not line up right, and how the
'corrupt skeptics' accusation falls apart no matter which angle it is viewed
from. I leave it to readers' judgement about such problems.

Response: Please
see his number 7 claim above for an example of this strategy of his. It is
consistent with Harris’ strategy of stating, “I stopped reading when...,” only to
then discuss topics that occurred after the point he claimed he quit reading.
Cook is kind of similar – a very shallow, unimaginative tactic that proves
nothing, but makes him sound clever.

Error/Not Error:
Still not an error and yet another statement of mine that Russell proved
correct with his own words and actions.

Me: show me where
the author describes "cataclysmic-sounding situations" anywhere.

Cook: 18."deniers of global climate change also
support an "alternate reality," one that may well spell disaster for
humans in the next 25 to 50 years" / "the imminent calving of the
Larsen C ice shelf" / "continued loss of ice on the Greenland ice
sheet" / "water flowing into Davis Strait and the Arctic Ocean,
raising sea levels"

When such events are described by global warming believers
as potentially causing millions of refugees, that's the definition of
cataclysm: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cataclysm

Response: The
writer of the letter did not make any claim about millions of refugees, so
you’re already wrong on this claim. But, keep in mind that droughts, floods and
famines are all disasters. All of these, and much more, are already happening
and getting worse because of climate change and will continue to do so. The
other instances you mentioned are things that have already occurred. A disaster
is not a cataclysmic event.

Error/Not Error: Not
an error (or even a very good try).

Me: Maybe it's to
attack the author of that letter

Cook: 19.No, the objective was to set up how such
letter writers are enraged when the science-based emotionless assessments from
skeptic climate scientists undermine the alarmism of global warming believers,
and that such believers often refuse to engage in reasoned, calm debate, but
instead launch into emotion-laden personal attacks. Which is exactly what the
letter writer did with zero evidence behind the accusation.

Response: First,
in this comment Cook is describing the actions of the anti-science deniers, not
the writer of that letter. But, in no way did Cook demonstrate that was his
intention. What he did was to attack the writer of that letter (and continues
to do so in these comments of his). He started with the attack, “are often
livid at the mere mention of famous-name climatologists and climate-denier
organizations which doubt it,” without ever producing any of these
famous-names. He then presents false statements concerning the denier movement
as being factual without ever backing them up. Funny, that’s what he accused
the letter writer of doing. This is yet another example of his “it’s not true
until I say it is” logic.

Error/Not Error: Not
an error. Cook is a bully and he showed it by beating up an anonymous woman.

Me: people like
Cook hate is the fact that essentially every climate scientists in the world
who is active in the field acknowledges manmade climate change is real.

Cook: 20.Keating is of course guessing what my opinion
is. The question of course is not whether humans have some effect over climate,
it is entirely whether our activity is the primary driver of global warming.

Response: No,
you’ve expressed this opinion many times. There is no guessing involved. Take a
look at my last posting about you for an example of this.

Cook: Aside:Letters-to-the-editor have word limitations.
Whether Keating chooses to acknowledge it or not, climatologists exist who
dispute the notion that human activity is the primary driver of what little
global warming we've seen over the last 150 years.

Response:
Interesting that Cook didn’t provide any of these climatologists. Maybe he’s
thinking of Roy Spencer, who has been caught committing fraud with his research
so many times he can’t get anything published anymore. Or, Tim Ball, who is not
a climatologist and whose record led a court to state, “The Plaintiff is viewed
as a paid promoter of the agenda of the oil and gas industry rather than as a
practicing scientist.” Or, maybe Richard Lindzen, who stated for years he
received no money from the fossil fuel industry for his research until it was
discovered he was receiving up to $2500 per day for ‘consulting.’ Or maybe he
means Willie Soon, who is an aerospace engineer and not a climatologist, who
has close ties with the anti-science Heartland Institute and has received over
$1 million over the last decade in funding exclusively from the fossil fuel
industry. Or, maybe he means Christopher Monckton who is not a climatologist
and has falsely claimed, among many other lies, that he is a member of the
House of Lords to the point that Parliament sent him a letter to stop making it
and posted the letter on its webpage. Or, maybe he means John Coleman, the
founder of the Weather Channel, who claims to be a meteorologist, even though
he isn’t, and has no degree in science at all and has his every claim routinely
debunked. I could go on, but the point is made. I’m waiting for Cook to produce
even a single credible climatologist who says manmade global warming isn’t
real.

And, please note that he STILL hasn’t produced one, even
with as many words as he wants.

Error/Not Error: A
complete face-plant by Cook. Not an error.

Me: It's because
he can't.

Cook: 21.Keating's assertion here is acutely ironic,
because my first-ever comment at his blog was in reference to the NIPCC
Reports, which features numerous names of internationally recognized skeptic
climate scientists, and as I mentioned in one of my GelbspanFiles postshttp://gelbspanfiles.com/?p=609 , my email
address book reads like a “Who’s Who” list of skeptic scientists.

Response: Take a
look here or here to see just how incredibly bad the NIPCC report is. That is
only a very small reference list of places you can go to to find out about the
lack of credibility in that report.

Anyone who thinks the NIPCC has anything to do with science
is suffering a mental illness. This report of theirs has been completely
debunked. It’s so bad that it is a joke and a punch line rolled in one. If it
is so good, why isn’t they can’t support their claims with any experimental evidence?
Answer: It’s because they can’t.

Error/Not Error:
Most definitely not an error. Cook needs to seek psychiatric counseling if he really
believes the NIPCC reports show any kind of science undermining climate
scientists.

Me: Cook goes on
to claim there is no evidence that the fossil fuel industry has been funding
the anti-science community to protect it's profits.

Cook: 22.Keating torpedoes his own assertion with my
subsequent verbatime quote. Nobody denies that skeptic climate scientists have
received some funds from industry people. Clear as day, I say there is no
evidence proving the money bought lies as part of any explicit arrangement
acknowledged by all parties as corrupt action.

Response: Once
again, Cook uses his “it’s not true until I say it is” line of logic. There is
a mountain of evidence. See the next comment for some of these references as
provided in my original post.

Cook: 23.What's the common thread among all those
links? 'Deniers are funded.' What's missing at every one of those? Evidence
that the funding was in exchange for specific lies that all parties know were lies
designed to keep 'Big Coal & Oil' profitable.

Cook: 24.No, the genuine leaked documents were utterly
benign, devoid of any evidence of a conspiracy to lie, but the one fake memo
had to be concocted in order to make a conspiracy mountain out of a boring mole
hill. See: http://fakegate.org/study-gleick-forged-fakegate-memo/

There’s lots more, but the point is made. It was a Heartland
internal document and did a lot of damage.

Error/Not Error:
Heartland and Cook made errors, but I didn’t.

Me: Cook will
just tell you this isn't evidence.

Cook: 25.The inexplicable appearance here is that
Christopher Keating seemingly does not comprehend what the meaning of corrupt
is: "having or showing a willingness to act dishonestly in return for
money or personal gain."

Saturday, August 5, 2017

A tip of the hat to Dave James for alerting me
to the following comment by Russell Cook.

Debunking the Heartland Institute's hatchet man, Russell Cook, is both fun and easy. But, it does
take time and I have a very full plate. That means spending time on his inane
drivel is time away from something more productive. I need a reason to do that
and, sometimes, I find it useful. Cook is a little man who wouldn’t amount to
anything important if not for the Internet. But, that’s the world we live in
and little people who are given a large forum find it possible to have an
impact. The fact is climate change is already the most serious issue of our day
and is only becoming more so. Russell Cook is not a serious person, but he, and
others like him, have an effect that we need to pay attention to.

[UPDATE: In the comments Cook made in his posting about my 25 so-called errors, Cook states (referring to Heartland:

They do know of my history of challenging letter writers and
article commenters to show readers where the proof exists indicting skeptics of
corporate corruption, and they sometimes suggest places where I can pose those
challenges, but I receive no instructions on what to write.

Here Cook is admitting to doing the dirty work for Heartland.]

So, let’s look at his comment below and review it for
credibility and accuracy. Below is a comment Cook made in a recent article by the anti-science team of Tim Ball and Tom Harris. As soon as people showed up to point out the factual errors in it, Cook showed up.

Here's a bit of an aside on this Tom
Harris-commenter Dave James situation: Over at a blog which James is seen
frequenting in its comment sections, the blogger accused me ( http://dialoguesonglobalwarming.blogspot.com/.../russell...
) of among other things, fitting a pattern where I supposedly was at Harris'
beck-and-call to defend him. I count 25 errors in that blog post here http://gelbspanfiles.com/?p=5509 , but that is another
story. What I would suggest to readers is a simple test of that particular
accusation, in relative comparison to what the actual situation is: Place the
name Tom Harris and mine within quote marks in a single Google search window,
and see how many times I supposedly 'come to Tom's defense.' Then do a similar
search, but substitute the name Dave James for my name. Again, put his within
quote marks which narrows the search to only his name and Tom's. The results
are most fascinating.

The larger lesson is more critical - how often do we see
pushers of the notion of catastrophic man-caused global warming resort to
various forms of character assassination ('he's not a climate scientist / 'he's
a paid industry shill' / 'his religious/political leanings/education level
taints his viewpoints' etc) as a means of marginalizing opposition, instead of
conclusively demonstrating how skeptics' science assessments are refuted? How
often do we also see false premise attempts to deem the issue a 'settled
science' via worthless references to a so-called consensus (scientific
conclusions have NEVER been validated by a 'show of hands') or via worthless
appeals to authority (science societies' proclamations are pointless if
influential members having control over public relations statements have been
misled or have political agendas to promote, and if the proclamations do not
reflect many of their own members' viewpoints).

What Tom Harris attempts to do is make up for the lack of
reporting by the mainstream media about the skeptic side of the issue. While
the skeptic side doesn't call for the censorship of comments such as those
coming from folks like Dave James, his side does not benefit from having the
appearance of having dedicated stalkers who follow Tom Harris around the
internet with comments ranging from unsupportable assertions about Harris'
positions to outright accusations about taking industry money to lie. But don't
ask James about the latter problem; ask Al Gore to provide us ALL with the
evidence he has against ANY skeptic climate scientist over that specific
accusation. Deer-in-the-headlights ambush opportunity for intrepid reporters,
anyone?

In his first line, Cook states, “fitting
a pattern where I supposedly was at Harris' beck-and-call to defend him.”
Please notice this comment was made on an article by Tom Harris and Tim Ball
that was receiving comments by people showing where Harris is factually incorrect. In other words, Cook is denying he runs to defend
Harris by running and defending him. Really!

[UPDATE: I am currently working on reviewing the so-called 25 errors I made in my posting concerning Cook. One of his comments was:

Tom Harris writes op-eds and letters-to-the-editor that I am
totally unaware of, but he has alerted me via email to a few where he knows I
would have some fun challenging his critics to prove he or others are paid by
'Big Coal & Oil' to lie.

While stating he is not at Harris' beck and call, he simultaneously states he is at Harris' beck and call. Great logic.]

The bigger issue is that Cook is well
known for showing up when the comments get too difficult for Harris to deal
with. Cook comes in and uses his favorite approach – “it’s not real until
I say it is” in an attempt to counter the science. I can’t recall even one
instance where Cook actually produced any science or data to support his
arguments. I would be interested in anyone pointing out to me any instance
where he did.

He next states I made 25 errors in a blog post about him.
I’ll review that one in detail in a post.

Then, he makes one seriously flawed statement that really
demonstrates his lack of credibility:

The larger lesson is more critical -
how often do we see pushers of the notion of catastrophic man-caused global
warming resort to various forms of character assassination ('he's not a climate
scientist / 'he's a paid industry shill' / 'his religious/political
leanings/education level taints his viewpoints' etc) as a means of marginalizing
opposition, instead of conclusively demonstrating how skeptics' science
assessments are refuted?

WAIT A MINUTE! What he’s doing is
describing the actions of the denier community and doing it at the same time!
He actually starts by stating “pushers of the notion of catastrophic man-caused
global warming” before accusing people of character assassination. For those of
you not familiar with this, the common form of this statement is to call people who accept the
science ‘alarmists.’ This is an effort on the part of the denier community to
marginalize the science and anyone who accepts it. He then follows up by
claiming that pointing out someone, who professes to be an expert on climate
science, is not, in fact, a climate scientist is somehow character
assassination. Wow! And, I bet Cook actually believes that line of reasoning.

And, pointing out someone is a paid
shill of the fossil fuel industry is not character assassination. If someone is
going to make statements to the public and claim they are an unbiased source of
information, then the public has a right to know that the person in question
is, in fact, not unbiased at all. When a person is paid to promote an agenda,
that person is a paid shill. Tom Harris, Tim Ball, Russell Cook are just three
examples of a plethora of people who fit this description and fail to advise
readers of their affiliations to the very industry they are promoting.

And, I find it very interesting to see
him make comments about political and religious viewpoints. This is very much
the tactic taken by the deniers, not the science community. I cannot even begin
to estimate how many times I’ve been accused of being a liberal Democrat or a
Hillary-lover. And, you should see the spectrum of claims about my religious
beliefs. All from people who have no knowledge whatsoever of either. And, I’m
not the only one. I routinely see this tactic taken by deniers when they attack
pro-science people with claims anyone who supports the science of being
“extreme leftists” or “Hollywood elites.” This doesn't even include the amount of vulgarities hurled by the deniers at pro-science people. No,
character assassination is something the deniers do. Cook can’t put this one on
the pro-science people.

As for demonstrating how “skeptics’”
science is being refuted, the fact is that deniers very seldom even attempt to
produce any science. They typically merely attack the IPCC or Al Gore or Michael
Mann or make political/religious attacks, such as the ones mention above. But,
when they do, it is routinely and easily shown to be false. The very fact of the matter is
that there is no science to support the claims of the denier crowd. None! Yes,
the science really is settled and anyone who tells you differently is not
telling you the truth. I even went so far as to offer to pay anyone $10,000 of
my own money to anyone who could produce any such science and no one could, out
of hundreds of submissions (many duplicates) could do so. And, unlike similar denier
challenges (which inspired me to make my challenge), I posted all original submissions and
showed why each was invalid. Many denies claim that it was rigged because I was
the judge. Well, I’ve offered to pay if anyone can show how any of my decisions
were invalid. They are right there for everyone to see. If it was rigged, it would be easy to show it, so why hasn't anyone done so? The offer still stands. You can see all submissions and my responses here.

Once again, we see Russell Cook has
zero credibility.

Let’s continue. He next attacks the
consensus. This is an area that is great concern to the denier community and
that level of concern can be traced back to the Luntz memo from the George W.
Bush administration entitled “The Environment: A Cleaner, Safer, Healthier
America.” See the a copy of the entire memo here. http://www.motherjones.com/files/LuntzResearch_environment.pdf.
Luntz stated (page 137, 7th page down) (emphasis original),

Voters believe that there is no
consensus about global warming within the scientific community. Should
the public come to believe that the scientific issues are settled, their views
about global warming will change accordingly. Therefore, you need to continue to make the
lack of scientific certainty a primary issue in the debate, and defer
to scientists and other experts in the field.

You can see, Cook is sticking to the
blueprint by claiming there is no consensus. But, it is real and you can read
about it here, here and here, for starters. Notice how Cook uses his favorite
tactic here – “It isn’t true until I say it’s true and I didn’t say it’s true,
therefore it isn’t true.” You can tell by his language it infuriates him that
there really is a consensus. This consensus has not only been confirmed with
multiple studies, but has even been confirmed by deniers themselves. Read about
it here.

And, Cook continue with his zero credibility in the last paragraph, stating,

“What Tom Harris attempts to do is make up for the lack of
reporting by the mainstream media about the skeptic side of the issue. While
the skeptic side doesn't call for the censorship of comments such as those
coming from folks like Dave James.”

Oh, beautiful. One of the things I keep documenting is
how often comments providing refuting documentation get flagged and deleted by
the deniers. They censor so much you could describe it as a plague. If fact, you can’t voice any
dissenting opinion at all on many of denier sites without it being deleted. So,
Cook is being less than honest on that issue.

Since I periodically look at Keating's blog as a
matter of curiosity, I found his then-proposed 6/28/17 letter-to-the-editor
(archived in original form here http://archive.is/Iid5o ), and I alerted a DNT
editor to it as yet another potential opportunity to challenge people like
Keating to prove their assertions. The editor replied to say Keating's
publication of it at his blog violated the newspaper's requirement about having
first-publication exclusivity to such pieces, and he asked Keating to delete
his blog post, which Keating did.

In other words, Cook is admitting to trying to censor my letter. Fortunately, it didn't work. The Duluth News Tribune published my letter.]Concerning Tom Harris, if
Harris actually produced any valid science there wouldn’t be any comments
showing his errors. I have documented Harris’ efforts to deceive and mislead
the public with false logic, deception and outright lies. You can read all
about Tom Harris here and see for yourself. Don’t take my word for it, let
Harris speak for himself.

What we have seen in this comment is that Russell Cook has less than zero
credibility. In fact, like his buddy Harris, he is a paid shill, taking money
from the Heartland Institute to promote their anti-science agenda. One of the
things Cook is obsessed about is Ross Gelbspan. Gelbspan
was an accomplished reporter and won the Pulitzer prize while with the Boston
Globe, but he has since retired. Today, he writes an occasional blog post. So,
Cook is either obsessed with a retired guy or a blogger. Take your pick.

I’ve spent a lot of time on this guy, but it’s for a purpose. Russell Cook is
representative of so many of the anti-science trolls that it’s useful to
examine his nonsense so we can combat it wherever we see it.

Tom Harris continues his Trail of Deceit with a letter to the editor of the Moab Sun Times. In this letter, Harris states the Ontario electric rate has gone up over 300% and implies this was due to the cancellation of coal generation. Neither statement is true. You can read the letter here. Or, read my submitted response below.

The author of the August 3 letter, “In praise of Pruitt,” is
trying to deceive the readers. The letter implies that the electricity rate in Ontario rose by over 300%
because coal generation was banned, but this isn’t true or accurate. Global
News, in Toronto,
investigated the rates and found that, over the last 10 years, rates have gone
up 70% for peak, 85% for mid-peak and 150% for off peak rates. The average household electric bill went from
$40.03 to $83.18 between 2006 and 2016 (not including taxes and fees), an
average of about 108%.

Importantly, this rate increase was not due to canceling
coal generation. The increase is attributed to infrastructure upgrades, privatization
of the hydroelectric dam, and long-term contracts to the private sector. Interestingly,
part of the increase is attributed to the politically-motivated cancellation of
two gas-fired power plants, which would’ve lowered the rates. And, that’s coal’s
real problem – there are cleaner, cheaper alternatives.

The only way coal can be affordable as a power source is if
someone else pays for the pollution. Mercury pollution, coal sludge, sulfur
dioxide leading to acid rain which destroys wildlife and lakes and streams,
particulate pollution that causes lung disease and other health issues, CO2
leading to climate change. These are all problems associated with burning coal.
And, they want someone else to pay for the damage.

The International Climate Science Coalition is a fossil fuel
advocacy group and is heavily associated with climate changer denier
organizations. The writer has a long employment record of working as an
advocate for the fossil fuel and tobacco industries. His job is to place pieces
in the news media undermining climate science and promoting fossil fuels,
especially coal.

I am a professor of physics and have conducted research in
planetary geophysics, including climate science, for over 25 years.

Friday, August 4, 2017

Tim Ball and Tom Harris recently wrote an article claiming
the IPCC can’t be trusted. Their line of reasoning is that the IPCC’s mandate
has changed over time. Originally, the mandate was to review the science on
climate change and has now become to review the science related to manmade
climate change. This, they claim, makes it untrustworthy. By changing the
mandate he claims the IPCC has now become biased, since it is therefore somehow
beholden to find manmade climate change in order to ensure its own continued
existence. If there’s no manmade climate change, they reason, the IPCC won’t be
needed. So, they’ll ignore anything that doesn’t support what they want to
find.

The principle problem with this claim is that it is
deceptive. While the original mandate stated that the IPCC was to study all
causes of climate change, it also made it perfectly clear the emphasis was
manmade climate change. No specific item mentions any other cause. Apparently,
the authors of this article didn’t think anyone would actually go back and read
the original mandate to check on the accuracy of their statement. Go read the
original mandate for yourself at http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/43/a43r053.htm.
Meanwhile, let me quote for you:

Noting with concern that the emerging evidence indicates
that continued growth in atmospheric concentrations of "greenhouse"
gases could produce global warming with an eventual rise in sea levels, the
effects of which could be disastrous for mankind if timely steps are not taken
at all levels,

Recognizing the need for additional research and scientific
studies into all sources and causes of climate change,

.

.

.

6.Urges
Governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations and
scientific institutions to treat climate change as a priority issue, to
undertake and promote specific, co-operative action-oriented programmes and
research so as to increase understanding on all sources and causes of climate
change, including its regional aspects and specific time-frames as well as the
cause and effect relationship of human activities and climate, and to
contribute, as appropriate, with human and financial resources to efforts to
protect the global climate;”

This is an example of what is known as ‘cherry picking,’
taking only what supports your predetermined conclusion and ignoring the rest.
The article left out a considerable amount that clearly states the purpose of
the IPCC was to study manmade climate change. In other words, the mandate did
not change. So, we must ask, why did Ball and Harris say it did? The answer
lies in examining their records.

Tim Ball is a doctor of historical geography. He is not a
climatologist as is often claimed and was not a member of the Department of
Climatology at the University
of Winnipeg. There was no
such department while he was there. He has never been a climate scientist and
does not have any peer-reviewed papers on the subject. When Ball sued a paper
for libel, the court documents stated, Ball "never held a reputation in
the scientific community as a noted climatologist and authority on global
warming."Continuing, the courts
also stated, "The Plaintiff's credentials and credibility as an expert on
the issue of global warming have been repeatedly disparaged in the media,” and
"The Plaintiff is viewed as a paid promoter of the agenda of the oil and
gas industry rather than as a practicing scientist."

But, that isn’t all. The co-author of this article is TomHarris, Executive Director of the International Climate Science Coalition
(ICSC). This organization serves to promote the fossil fuel industry and is
closely aligned with numerous organizations devoted to denying climate science.
Harris himself has a long, and well documented, record of affiliations with the
fossil fuel and tobacco industries.

So, we can see the reason for this article. It is part of
the effort to undermine climate science and prevent any actions from being
taken to address the problem. The IPCC is their principle target because it’s
the leading international organization leading the way in this effort. Of
course Ball and Harris don’t want anyone to trust the IPCC.

If they started the article this poorly, it stands to reason
there will be many other false or misleading statements and they did not
disappoint in this regard. For instance, speaking of the IPCC, they state,
“this means that policymakers, not
scientists, lead the process” (emphasis original). This is a very
misleading statement because the IPCC is NOT a scientific body and has never
been one. The scientists are the people doing the research and publishing
papers. The IPCC reviews these papers and produces a report reflecting that
science. Again, the people on the IPCC may, or may not, be scientists because
it is not a scientific body. In other words, it has ALWAYS been the case that
policymakers lead the process of putting together the report. The scientists are
responsible for doing the science.

Their next statement is even more misleading because they
purposefully call the IPCC report “research” when they stated, “the
supposed scientific consensus was reached before the research had even begun.”
(Emphasis original.) The report is a review of the science and is not. What is
really interesting about this statement is that it is attribute to RichardLindzen, another person with strong ties to the fossil fuel industry. Lindzen
famously declared for years that he did not receive any funding for his
research from the fossil fuel industry. But, what he failed to state was that
he was receiving large payments from ExxonMobil for ‘consulting.’ The exact
amount he received over the years is not clear, but some estimates have it
going over a million dollars and he has admitted to receiving as much as $2500
for a day’s worth of work.

The pattern is definitely developing.

They continue, stating, “The fact is that in 1992 -- and
still today -- we have no idea what GHG concentrations would lead
to “dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.”” (Emphasis original.)
Once again, this statement is, at the least, misleading. Even ExxonMobil admits
it has known for decades manmade emissions were causing climate change. Esso
(the ExxonMobil predecessor) scientist James Black published a paper, along
with the Union of Concerned Scientists, that stated manmade emissions were
causing climate change. In 1977, Dr. Black warned company
executives of the danger of atmospheric carbon dioxide increases from the
burning of fossil fuels and that these emissions were most likely changing the
climate. So, Ball and Harris are misleading with their statement. We did, in
fact, know in 1992 (and much earlier) that greenhouse gas emission would lead
to dangerous climate change. I suppose they could quibble over the meaning of
‘dangerous’ and argue they weren’t being deceptive. Of course, any such
argument would be deceptive by itself.

Let’s look at another statement. Referring to the IPCC statement that the
report examines both natural and manmade causes of climate change, the pair
state, “Following the UNFCCC lead, the IPCC reports exclude
most natural variables and mechanisms. This is politically necessary so as to
support the predetermined conclusion that human sources of carbon
dioxide are causing dangerous climate change. This occurred even though
carbon dioxide, from natural and anthropogenic sources combined, constitutes
only 4% of atmospheric greenhouse gases.”

No, they are not telling the truth. Natural causes are
examined in all scientific research. The problem is that, outside of a
tremendous event (such as a meteorite impact or massive volcanic eruption)
there are no natural causes that can change the climate as much and as quickly
has been observed. All causes have been examined; it’s just that natural causes
are not capable of producing what has been observed. Once again, they are
misleading the reader.

Ultimately, it is highly appropriate they closed with the
quote from Voltaire about defining your terms because that is how they take
advantage of the reading public – they change the meaning of the terms and hope
you won’t bother to check on them.